The Australian Ashes challenge is gaining some momentum. A good win at Taunton is being followed by what promises to be a leathering of Worcestershire after Michael Clarke's century saw the tourists' dominance continue at New Road.

The first-choice seamers have been rested up for next week's fray but there has been enough of a show from Jackson Bird, on a slow shirtfront, to keep them on their toes. There has been some thunderous batting from Shane Watson; a century at better than a run a ball from Clarke that confirms not only his quality and form but also his fitness (for there were no stretches or obvious signs of twinges in the two hours he batted); and a plethora of half-centuries for others. There is a general ebullience in the team and some order appears to have been restored.

Now that the opening partnership of Watson and Chris Rogers has been established, it looks as if it will be Ed Cowan who misses out. Sometimes, when a player needs things to run his way as he battles for a place, the opposite happens. At Taunton Cowan got a bad decision just as he was getting going, and in the first innings here he trumped his running out of the captain by then doing the same to himself. Much the same fortune followed himon Thursday. So starts have not progressed into anything significant, the rueful glances at the toe of his bat as he wandered off having been given out lbw a not so subtle message to the umpire.

But on the other side of the coin came Phil Hughes, who followed up a desultory unbeaten 19 in the first innings with a rather more violent 86 against his erstwhile county colleagues, in the course of which, with a declaration in mind, he clobbered eight fours and a six in the space of 13 deliveries before succumbing to a boundary catch two balls later.

If it was a bit of a romp in its latter stages then it may yet prove important for him and the series. New Road carries a significance for Hughes beyond his brief tour of duty here with Worcester last summer. Four years ago he arrived in England with a brace of Test hundreds against South Africa and a reputation as a plunderer. Then, against the Lions, he was put in his place by a combination of Graham Onions' tight line and Steve Harmison's volatility. He played in the first two Ashes Tests, failed, and was not seen again.

This time he arrives as someone trying to re-establish himself, particularly after a torrid time, bordering on embarrassing, against the off-spin of Ravichandran Ashwin in India. He still looks to favour the off-side but not to the same extent as he once did, where he hung on leg stump pleading for width. But give him any and he is sharp on to it off front or back foot, and he pulls with flickering bat-speed. Later, some of his leg side strokes through midwicket, and a brace of sixes straight into the New Road stand, were played with such effortless timing that the bat made scarcely a whisper. And so the Australian batting order is falling into place: Watson and Rogers at the top; Clarke wherever he decides, having made 124 from 98 balls to go with 62 in the first innings and confident enough to bat without a sweater; Hughes now; and then perhaps Steve Smith and David Warner. Cowan, meanwhile, could be left to wonder whether the whip has cracked fairly for him.